Samuel Adams Honey Porter
A full-bodied English-style Porter, this brew has a substantial roasted malt character. Brewed with traditional English Ale hops and sweetened with Scottish heather honey. The honey balances the spiciness from the hops and the roasted malt character. The beer is finished by dry hopping with English Goldings.
3.2
889 reviews
Boston, United States
Community reviews
Bottle. Clear deep red brown with a beige head. Hard roasted malt aroma with sweet notes of honey. Some bread. Taste is medium sweet with lightly burned malts and light fruity notes. Very discreet hoppy whiff. Lightly roasted malty bitter finish.
(33 cl bottle; BBD: May 2011 - bought it three days before rating at the supermarket "SuperBrugsen Nørrevold") This seemed like the perfect beer to taste on the eve of the DNC acceptance speech. Little did I know. Pours dark brown with little off-white head that fades quickly and leaves some lace. Big chunky floatie in my glass and the honey seems to have separated to form little oily beads at the Gulf of Mexico in the bottom of my glass. Initial aroma a pleasant burst of honey and roasted malt. The harmonic blend doesn’t seem to have staying power though and after the initial honeymoon cardboard and rotten fruit come to the front. Watery texture, soft carbonation, lingering roasted bitter finish with a metallic note. Taste is initally metallic followed by a watery roastedness. Frankly I’m disgusted that SuperBrugsen would sell me beer that old. Girlfriend says: "Tastes a bit like tea. A very herbal taste that stays on the tongue."
(Bottle). Sweet aroma of roasted malt with a distinct element of chocolate. Taste of roasted malt and chocolate. A bit dry and rough in the finish. Rich in flavor and tasty!
It smells roasty-honey, the head is ok. The taste is sweet-honey, roasty. In the aftertaste sweet and honey. A Honey Porter not more or less, ok. 11/10/10/11/11/10
A full-bodied English-style Porter, this brew has a substantial roasted malt character. Brewed with traditional English Ale hops and sweetened with Scottish heather honey
Pours very black with a small head. Malty aroma with some cent of honey/tofee. Taste is rather sweet with some noticable roasty bitterness with a finish that doesnt pick up until after a few tastes. Medium bodied beer but light palate, runs down easily. overall a fine porter.
aroma, sweetness in the nose like flowery, not hoppy flowery,color, amber hue clear, white head, some lacing, taste, at first I do pivk up on the honey, flowery like taste too, I guess from the Heather flowers?, malty backend,overall, A sweet porter, i see the rating is 64 I think is better that that
Bottle, pours dark reddish with medium tan head. Aroma is honey and some roasted malts. Taste is honey, some hops, roasted malts. Light mouthfeel for being a porter. Too much honey and some weird flavor I cant put a name on. Just became worse the more i drank it. Fy fan
Bottle. A deep red almost black colour with a beige head. Light roasted malt and caramel nose. Mixed flavour of roasted barley, chocolate, caramel and maybee some honey if you taste a lot :-)
Tasted bottle from Brewmaster’s Collection mix-pack into nucleated pint glass. Poured a clear dark brown with firm beige head which quickly dissipated, little lace. Fairly mediocre porter aromas and flavor. Some honey in the nose, very little honey taste, but I’d prefer this to overdoing it with cloying sweetness. Pretty tasty, I’m glad I tried it, but I doubt I will purchase it separately.
Pours a dark red brown with a tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, caramel and some mild honey. Medium bodied with roasted malts, chocolate, honey and some dark fruits. Finishes a little bitter. Not bad.
Bottle. Pours black with a small brown head. Aroma and taste are roast malt, chocolate, honey and caramel. Not too much honey (good), but a bit boring overall.
Bottle @ The Flying Scotsman on September 19. Pours dark chestnut brown with almost no head. Smell is sweet and includes molasses, raisins and lightly roasted malts. Taste is dominated by honey, malt and some burnt sugar. It all ends up in a slightly acidic aftertaste. Quite nice but a bit too sweet and not very complex.
This beer is decently complex with a strong honey flavor. Small spice notes and hops balance this beer well.
A porter with a slight taste of honey, but not much. The scent is a little old ale style.
Roasted malts complimented by sweet honey. Hops, too. To classify this as a porter is almost sacrilege, as it is still light as all the other Sam Adams beers. Shame.
Deep deep cola colored, with big creamy lacey head. Nose is malt, coffee,and honey. They really did alot of things right here. Taste is wonderfully balanced: malt, coffee, pecans, brown sugar, honey, and a nice dusting of cocoa powder. They should be really commended for the balance they showed here.....a lesser brewry would’ve overloaded the honey with sophomoric enthusiasm. Here the honey is present, but by no means the center flavoring. Acts much more as supporting the porter instead of trying to compete. Well done. EDIT: I should add, this bottle is 3 years old.....so I think the aging played a part in this high score because checking my notes from years ago, I thought there was too much honey flavor. So age definitely improves this one.
Bottle @ Home. Pours dark brown with a tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, coffee, caramel, honey. Taste is malt, light coffee, honey. Medium body, soft carbonation. Might have been a little harsh on this one, since i dont really like honey. 310110
I tend to find honey flavours and aromas in beers I really enjoy, so I was very excited when I found a beer that actually contains real honey. A deep dark brown body with a reddish tint supports a light-brown head that soon reduces to a thin film. Good lacing. Strong malty, roasted aroma with lots of molasses, brown sugar, malt extract, strong coffee and, of course, honey. It’s almost a bit too much. A solid sweetness is followed by a very welcome medium bitterness: without the bitterness this beer would have been too malty sweet. Lots of honey in the flavours, but not the sweet gentle kind: this is a mean, dark honey. Also malt extract, brown sugar and coffee. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation. Good stuff, but I prefer my honey sweet.
[35.5 cl bottle, from SuperBrugsen, Brønshøj Torv, Copenhagen]
Very English, meaning it falls on the sweet, nutty side of porters, with no noticeable hop-influenced finish. Sweet, but not cloying, there is a pleasant roasted-malt center to this beer, yet I have no love for English hops, and Sam Adams has a tangy, bitter fade that might as well be sporting the Union Jack. (12/08)
Bottle. Pours dark brown with a medium off-white head. Aroma is caramel, wood, honey, and raisins?...Flavor is wood, honey, pecans, caramel, and toffee. Medium body.
355 ml bottle at home. Black body with a two finger thick, rocky, light brown head. Distinct honey aroma with sweet liqorice and other roasted notes fully present. Sweet, roasted alcoholic and bitter with honey and liqorice present. Full bodied. Smooth. Dry finish. Rich and well balanced.
Thought this beer was a little too unbalanced. Too sweet and not enough hop for my tastes. I like a good porter but the honey just didn’t do it for me.
355 ml. bottle from the supermarket. Pours very dark red-brown, with a nice thick head that stays around for a while. Leaves a decent amount of lacing on the glass. Aroma is full of a lot of honey and roasted malt, with some bread. Nice mouthfeel, creamy enough. Taste is a let down, nowhere near as good as the smell. Light hint of hops in the finish, the finish is dominated by the honey. This beer is somewhat one-dimensional: There is only focus on the honey, and not munch else. However this beer is cheap, anything else at this price is pretty poor, which makes this beer OK.
Clear dark red brown with a beige head. Aroma is sweet and a little roasted malt but primarily honey. Flavor is rather sweet and light bitter. Sweet finish. A bit light bodied. This porter lacks roasted malt, and the sweet stickyness from the honey is overdone. 120210
Can taste a very little of the sweetness of the honey, otherwise not much different from the Holiday Porter.
Bottle purchased in Park City, Utah on 02/04/2011. Colour: Extremley dark red, with minimal head. Nose: Waxy, with evident honey, some dark cocoa. Taste: Medium sweet, light bitter, medium sour. Cloying sweetness that doesn’t quite have the smoothness of honey, dark cocoa again, oily starbucks coffee, hint of rubber, and something metallic. Finish is medium length.
Bottle. Close to black with a off white head. Smells of course like honey, and also liqurice and sweetness. Body is full of honey and burned sugar, and with lots of liqurice in the finish completed with some nice hops. Totally i think this beer is good but the sweetness of the honey maybe outchallenge the rest of the tastes
Bottle. Very dark brown with a pretty creamy tan head leaving some lacing. Aroma: honey, sweet licorice, wine gums. Taste: wine gums, licorice, honey, some fruit, and a hint of rubber, a bit thin flavour, some acidity, low bitterness. Medium-bodied. Nice enough.
Bottle. Thanks to fata2683 for the trade! Pours medium-opaque brown/black, thick pale tan head, spotty lacing. Nose is honey sourness, malted milk balls, licorice, some dark fruits/berries. Smells lightly creamy as well. Flavours are quite fruit-driven in the mouth, notes of berry, fig, light fudgy notes, as well as some red and black licorice, finish is tight and lightly cherry-sour. Pretty alright and better than I expected.